
Copyright N°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



<tf> 



SOME PARABLES 
OF NATURE 



In the Light of To-day 

By 
J. B. THOMAS, D. D., LL. D., 

Professor in Newton Theological Institution 



I 



(Etnrttmatt : 

JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 

Nptu f0rk: 

EATON AND MAINS 






Copyright, 1911, 
By Jennings and Graham 






(g a. & 2 '.<>-< • ; 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE, 



flatt I 

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS, 

1. Significance of the Parable. 

2. Distinction of Parable and Miracle. 
8. Distinction of Parable and Proverb. 

4. The Parable's Perennial Message. 

5. Basis of Interpretation. 



Part II 

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM, 31 

I. The Problem of Environment, 37 

1. Making of Environment. 

2. Illusion of Continuity. 

3. Specious Uniformity. 

4. Seeming Self-Sumciency of Nature. 

5. The Mystery of Waste. 

II. The Problem of Organic Origins, 55 

1. Spontaneous Generation. 

2. Transmutation of Species. 
8. Protective Resemblance. 

4. An Unseen World of Miro-Organisms. 



CONTENTS 



III. The Problem of a Vital Force, 

1. Automatism. 

2. Increase by Assimilation. 
8. Creative Activity. 

4. Selective Efficiency. 



63 



IV. The Problem of Destructive Agencies, 74 

1. Shrinking from Light. 

2. Parasitism. 

3. Toxic Stimulus. 

4. Subordination of Evil to Good. 

V. The Problem of Parabolic Purpose, 81 

1. Indolent Content with Superficial Truths. 

2. Earnest Quest for Truth. 



VI. The Concluding Disclosure, 

1. The Realm of Conspicuous Freedom. 

2. The Realm of Hidden Law. 



91 



4 



INTRODUCTION 



This little gem of New Testament 
study is taken from the Methodist Re- 
view, with the kind permission of the 
Editor of that superior journal, be- 
cause of its exceptional value and the 
earnest desire of the Publishers that 
for purely spiritual ends it might be 
diligently read by all disciples of the 
Lord Jesus, the Master Teacher. 

The standard works of Trench and 
Bruce on the Parables are familiar to 
all students of the Holy Gospels and 
are not surpassed by any similar works 
in any language; but in the whole 
range of literature on these marvelous 
5 



INTRODUCTION 

teachings of our Lord I know of no 
work that contains so much in so little 
as does this little book by Professor 
Thomas of Newton Theological Insti- 
tution, which is here offered to the 
reader. Beautiful and exact in literary 
form and expression, penetrating in 
thought, yet clear as a mountain stream, 
illuminating in exegetical skill, sug- 
gestive and spiritual, it can not fail to 
quicken interest in the method and con- 
tent of our Lord's teaching in Parables 
and to show how to study with thor- 
oughness the riches of the Word of 
God. 

R. J. Cooke, Booh Editor. 



6 



Part I 

PRELIMINARY CONSIDER- 
ATIONS 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDER- 
ATIONS 

Matthew's record gives us, in a special 
sense, the gospel of "the Kingdom." 
He alone uses the phrase "Kingdom of 
heaven." It is superseded thenceforth 
by "Kingdom of God." This change 
may be of no particular importance. 
But it recalls suggestively Bernard's 
plausible theory as to the "Progress 
of Doctrine in the New Testament." 
There is in the Gospels, he argues, 
a steady advance of emphasis from 
Kingdom to King. John, accordingly, 
mentions the Kingdom in only a single 
instance — that of the conversation with 
Nicodemus. His similitudes cluster 
9 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

invariably about the person of Christ. 
He is the "Good Shepherd," the "True 
Bread/' the "True Vine/ 5 etc. For light 
upon the earthward and circumstantial 
aspects of the coming Kingdom we 
are thus practically turned back to 
Matthew. In his narrative alone we 
find the laws of the Kingdom given in 
full and connectedly, in the Sermon 
on the Mount. There also the seven 
"parables of the Kingdom" appear, 
symmetrically grouped, in his thirteenth 
chapter. Only three of these discon- 
nectedly reappear in Luke, two are 
given in Mark, and none of them else- 
where. 

1. Significance or the Parable. 
The deep significance of these para- 
bles is seen in our Lord's accompany- 
ing comment. He intimates that the 
10 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

"scribe," who has "understood" them, 
has been made a "disciple to the King- 
dom of heaven." He has thus be- 
come "like unto a man that is a house- 
holder, who bringeth forth out of his 
treasure things new and old." Evi- 
dently these are among those "keys of 
the Kingdom," promised His disciples, 
which open the way to its hid treas- 
ures. As such they ought to be prized 
by those who long for a clue to the 
labyrinthian paths of its coming devel- 
opment. 

The high rank here assigned to para- 
bolic teaching seems the more remark- 
able because the parable itself so early 
dwarfs in emphasis and so soon wholly 
disappears. Beyond the Synoptic Gos- 
pels there are no parables, properly 
speaking. Nor is the parable ever 
11 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

again even mentioned in the New Tes- 
tament. Was it then a rudimentary 
and ephemeral form of instruction 
only, destined to give way to riper 
methods as the intelligence of the lis- 
teners advanced? Something like this 
seems implied in the statement that our 
Lord taught in parables "as they were 
able to bear it." But accompanying 
qualifications indicate that the unreadi- 
ness referred to was moral rather than 
intellectual. Jesus uses language show- 
ing His purpose mercifully to veil the 
deeper truth from the carnal multi- 
tude, lest its prematurely full disclos- 
ure should provoke instinctive revulsion 
and so do harm. Notice the striking il- 
lustration of this peril in Peter's case. 
He was not strong enough to listen pa- 
tiently to the announcement of his Mas- 
12 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

ter's coming humiliation. It set him 
aflame, and he "spake unadvisedly with 
his lips." This brought upon him sting- 
ing but needful rebuke. 

The parables need not be shallow be- 
cause they seem childishly simple. The 
attainment of perfect simplicity is the 
highest achievement of art. The depths 
of the transparent sea appear to lie 
close to the eye, while the murky waters 
of the pond remain unfathomed by it. 
It is more likely that the parable owed 
the brevity of its ministry to its pro- 
fundity and breadth of scope than to 
its superficiality. It dealt so centrally 
and comprehensively with its theme that 
its mission was quickly accomplished. 
There has been but one incarnation, but 
it embodied "the Truth," once and for- 
ever. In like manner the parable, 
13 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

doubtless, in the words of Lange, "in- 
terpreted eternity in the forms of 
time." It thus keeps always abreast of 
the world's thought and solicits succes- 
sively new interpretations. As Dean 
Trench has said of the germinal say- 
ings of Christ at large, it may be said 
with unique emphasis of His parables, 
"You never get to the end of them." 

2. Distinction or Parable and 
Miracle. The miracle has sometimes 
been defined as an "acted parable." 
But the two are, in fact, widely sepa- 
rated by characteristic differences. 
They had certain features in common, 
unquestionably. Both startled the peo- 
ple by their unusualness, and their sug- 
gestion of outreach beyond the human. 
But the occasion of surprise in the two 
cases was wholly distinct. Hearing the 
14 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

parable, the cry broke forth, " Whence 
hath this man this wisdom?" Behold- 
ing the miracle, they "glorified God 
who had given such power to men." 
Both carried spiritual lessons, for the 
miracle was also a symbol (semeion). 
But the idea conveyed by each was 
unique. The one was a work ; the other 
was a word. The one was evidential in 
function, aiming at present sense im- 
pression; the other was provocative 
rather, appealing to the rational under- 
standing. The one was primarily re- 
demptive, hinting of the normal order 
only by pointing to its brokenness, 
which it came to mend; the other was 
wholly revelatory, uncovering the work- 
ing actualities of the ongoing world. 
The one had an ephemeral function. 
It manifested the temporary presence 
15 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

of the incarnate God, tangibly and im- 
mediately. That f unction being ended, 
it is gone ; the other, turning nature into 
an "Interpreter's House" which abides, 
itself abides also as interpreter. 

3. Distinction of Paeable and 
Proveeb. There are no parables in the 
Gospel of John, as has already been 
said. He never uses the word parabohj 
but paroimia only. This latter term 
means, properly, a wayside saying or 
proverb, and is so translated by the re- 
visers in all except a single carelessly 
treated case. In this latter case (John 
10: 1-16) it is evident that the writer 
regards himself as uttering no parable. 
There is no continuity of narrative, but 
a string of metaphors only. The meta- 
phor differs from the parable as the 
hieroglyph differs from the symmetri- 
16 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

cal statue or picture. In the one case 
attention is fixed upon the object illus- 
trated. In the other case it is concen- 
trated upon the illustrating object. 
The eye being fixed upon Christ as 
the "Good Shepherd/' isolated features 
from the shepherd life and its sur- 
roundings may fitly be adduced, one by 
one, to illuminate His mission. There 
is thus no incongruity in speaking of 
Him as metaphorically the "Door" 
and the "Shepherd" at once; for it 
reminds us that He is both the me- 
dium and the agent in our salvation. 
The features assigned to the Son of 
man, in the first chapter of Revela- 
tion, become grotesquely intolerable if 
taken as furnishing a complete picture 
and not as disconnected; but rightly 

understood, as hieroglyphs, they are 
2 17 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

full of meaning. On the other hand, 
when Matthew fixes our attention upon 
"the sower" that "went forth to sow," 
by a preliminary "Behold," we expect 
a continuous narrative of sequences 
that are, or normally may be, true. 
The introduction of falsity or incoher- 
ence at any point would be fatal to the 
narrator's purpose. The parable is a 
picture, and as such must have unity, 
fidelity, and just proportion in por- 
trayal. 

4. The Parable's Perennial Mes- 
sage. The prophetic announcement, 
"I will open My mouth in parables; 
I will utter things which have been 
kept secret from the foundation of the 
world," is expressly claimed by Mat- 
thew to have been fulfilled in Christ's 
parabolic teaching. He suggestively, 
18 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

in making this claim, puts together the 
words katabole and parabole,, as if in 
antithesis. The one literally means a 
thrusting down or under; the other, a 
thrusting forth or near. As if it were 
meant to say that the secrets of na- 
ture, buried from the beginning under 
outward phenomena, w r ere now uncov- 
ered to view. It may be fanciful to 
suggest such antithesis as intended. 
But it remains true, at any rate, that 
there is assigned to the parable some 
fundamental significance as interpret- 
ing nature. The charge that Christ 
and Christianity have been unfriendly 
to physical research, or to intellectual 
advance in any direction, could never 
have been originated except out of hu- 
man obtuseness or perversity. The ex- 
act coincidence of the boundaries of the 
19 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

realm of scientific progress with those 
of Christendom, is a conclusive refuta- 
tion of the charge. It was Satan that 
had blinded men, deafened them, and 
clogged their f orw r ard footsteps by pa- 
ralysis. Christ condemned and reversed 
all this. And having restored men's 
powers, He earnestly besought those to 
whom they had been given back, as well 
as those who had never lost them, to 
use faithfully these heavenly gifts. 
His characteristic words were such as 
these: "Behold the fowls of the air;" 
"He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear;" "Arise, and take up thy bed, 
and walk." His characteristic com- 
plaint was that men "loved darkness 
rather than light;" that "seeing," they 
did not "perceive;" that they were slow 
to "ask" and to "seek." He piqued the 
20 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

curiosity of His disciples by hinting 
that the most familiar objects had every 
one an intrusted thought of God for 
them. Sir John Lubbock, on his knees 
before an ant-hill, was literally obeying 
the Solomonic injunction, "Consider 
her ways." To precisely the same ef- 
fect, our Lord bade His followers, 
"Consider the lily." The word used 
[katamanthano) is picturesquely sug- 
gestive. It means to get down to, and 
become a disciple of, the lily. The 
breadth of range which Christ's allu- 
sion to natural phenomena takes is sur- 
prising. But even more impressive is 
the precision with which He seizes the 
central point of interest and mystery in 
every case. It is the feeding of the 
birds to which He points as worthy 
of notice and study in that domain. 
21 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

When one has learned the relatively 

enormous number of the birds, the end- 
less variety of food required, and the 
marvelous ingenuity and diversity of 
the devices necessary to secure it. he 
will surely agree that the bird problem 
culminates at the "feeding" point. It 
is the "singleness" of the human eye 
that is chosen for suggestive contem- 
plation. It is this "singleness" that 
constitutes the chief unanswered prob- 
lem of the oculist to-day. It is not too 
much to say that, under the stimulus of 
Christ's incessant questioning and enig- 
matic hint, the whole world became 
studded with interrogation points. 
"Know ye not this parable? and how 
then will ye know all parables?" The 
question seems a fore-echo of Paul's 
saying, "The invisible things of Him 

99 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

since the creation of the world are 
clearly seen, being perceived through 
the things that are made." Milton re- 
echoes it in his vision of earth as 

But the shadow of heaven, and the things 

therein 
Each to other like more than on earth is 

thought. 

The notion of such a gigantic parallel- 
ism of things visible and invisible is em- 
bodied in the often cited passage from 
Ecclesiasticus : "All things are double, 
one over against another, and He hath 
made nothing in vain." 

5. Basis of Interpretation. The 
assumption of such a parallelism as is 
above suggested, accepted as under- 
lying the teaching of the parables, gives 
them a peculiarly modern look. For 
23 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

in that case the likeness between the 
thing illustrated and the thing illustrat- 
ing it is not artificial nor fanciful, but 
real. The parable becomes, thereupon, 
in order of thought, the counterpart of 
the so-called "scientific" method of to- 
day, which seeks by inductive processes 
to reach out from the known to the un- 
known. Both set out to ''interrogate 
nature," after Lord Bacon's precept, 
on the hypothesis that law prevails in 
the supernatural realm as well as in the 
natural, and that its operations are, in 
some respects, alike in both. In some 
respects only, let us remember, for 
analogy must not be hastily taken for 
identity. The growth of the Kingdom 
of heaven is 'like" that of a grain 
of mustard seed, but not its counterpart 
throughout. The growth of the peri- 
24 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

osteum in man is like that of the bark 
of a tree. But no physiologist seeks 
for full information about the former 
from the latter. The lower tells us 
something about the higher, which it 
resembles, but not everything. The 
expert interpreter of nature untiringly 
seeks for a solid basis of fact from 
which to theorize intelligently. He 
critically observes the phenomena, not- 
ing minutiae of identity and difference, 
and tracing relations of interaction and 
of sequence. Out of the data, so pains- 
takingly secured, he attempts to sift 
such uniformities of action as may help 
him to formulate what he calls "laws." 
Only from such a carefully and com- 
pactly built abutment does he venture 
to spring his cant ale ver truss of specu- 
lative inference. The interpreter of the 
25 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

parables of Christ ought logically to 
follow the same method. For they pre- 
sent groups of co-ordinated facts, hint- 
ing the significant features of agree- 
ment or disagreement, and bringing us 
face to face with a resulting problem. 
It would seem imperative here also first 
to master the features of the concrete 
picture, in detail, before attempting to 
draw abstract inferences from it. "Not 
first that which is spiritual," says the 
apostle, "but that which is natural, and 
afterward that which is spiritual." It 
will instruct us little to be told that the 
Kingdom of heaven is "like" this or 
that, until we have carefully acquainted 
ourselves with the characteristics of that 
which it is said to resemble. To invert 
this order is to hang the cantalever from 
midair. 

26 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 

jSTo part of the Scripture has been 
subjected to more fantastic caprice, and 
none has yielded more contradictoriness 
of result in interpretation, than these 
parables. Precipitate spiritualization 
has thus identified the " Kingdom" with 
the Church, and forbade Church disci- 
pline on the authority of the parable 
of the tares. It has insisted on making 
"leaven" here mean, exceptionally, a be- 
neficent agency. It has made the "hid 
treasure" and the "pearl" practically 
identical in significance. It has found 
in the parable of the "net" justifica- 
tion of Calvinistic "irresistible grace" 
on the one hand, and of baptismal re- 
generation on the other. It is not the 
purpose of this inquiry to revise these 
theoretic conclusions in the spiritual 
sphere, or to attempt new ones in the 
27 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

same sphere. It essays a much humbler, 
but by no means less important task — 
the preliminary study of the facts 
themselves, as furnishing the only trust- 
worthy basis of theoretic inference. 



28 



Part II 
PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

The parables in question begin with 
the word "Behold." The Greek term 
chosen is significant. It is eidein, im- 
mediately afterward (in verse 14) con- 
trasted with the inferior blepein. The 
former means to perceive, or see into, 
while the latter is only to see. It aims 
not simply at an arrest of the wander- 
ing eye and a hasty glance at the pic- 
ture to be unfolded. A protracted and 
penetrating study is solicited. The par- 
able is not simply to be heard but pa- 
tiently "understood." For it avowedly 
offers an enigma to be resolved, and this 
implies painstaking consideration of 
31 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

details. The facts appealed to are 
taken from the familiar world about us. 
They are so chosen and collated as to 
narrow our attention to certain enig- 
matic phases of nature's ongoing, which 
are commended to our careful examina- 
tion. Not until we have observed and 
pondered upon nature's methods in the 
particular case delineated, can we catch 
her secret, and divine in what respects 
the Kingdom of heaven is "like" the 
earthly phenomenon taken as its coun- 
terpart. It is essential, therefore, first 
of all, to note carefully the physical 
facts selected, their correspondences 
and differences, their order of sequence, 
and such other details as may help to 
single out the exact problem and reach 
the exact law intended. The value of 
such study, as illustrative of spiritual 
32 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

things, will, of course, depend on the 
fidelity of the parabolic report of na- 
ture's doings. "If I told you earthly 
things and ye believe not, how shall ye 
believe if I tell you heavenly things?" 
But why should we believe the heavenly, 
if the earthly be not truly portrayed? 
Whether they are here so portrayed, 
and whether they fairly suggest the 
queries and inferences here suggested, 
is open to inquiry now as then, 

The page of Scripture and that of 
nature ought to correspond if both are 
from the same Divine Author. And 
both are still in plain sight and legible. 
Nineteen centuries of observation and 
reflection have given us broader and 
deeper insight into nature and its laws. 
But nature itself remains unchanged, 
and so do Christ's words describing it. 
3 33 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

In comparing the two it is immaterial 
to inquire whether any striking coinci- 
dence be due to supernatural insight, 
or foresight on His part. Our inquiry 
is not as to His inner thought, which 
is matter of inference only, but as to 
His language, which is unmistakable. 
That His language, naturally under- 
stood, does reveal a curious gravitation 
of emphasis toward the precise subjects 
of modern research and the very prob- 
lems now under study will be found, 
however, equally unmistakable. 

It will be convenient to isolate the 
first four parables, as is done in the nar- 
rative. They are there given to the 
multitude, while the remaining three are 
reserved for the disciples only. These 
four fall naturally into a separate and 
cognate group. The phenomena no- 
34 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

ticed belong exclusively to the vital 
realm, as distinguished from the psychi- 
cal above and the mechanical below it, 
and in that realm to the vegetable world 
only. This sagacious narrowing of the 
field of vision is a striking anticipation 
of modernism. The transfer of inquiry 
from the broadly cosmical to the bio- 
logical has been the characteristic fea- 
ture of nineteenth century study. To 
this Comte long ago attributed the 
progress of current inquiry, as com- 
pared with Greek ultimate stagnancy. 
And the narrowing of observation, 
again, to the lower forms of life, is a 
notable anticipation of current method. 
For it greatly simplifies the problem by 
excluding those eccentric factors insep- 
arable from the life of animals and 
men — sensation, reason, will, con- 
35 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

science, and the like. The problem of 
vital action is thus presented to us re- 
duced to its lowest terms. The first 
parable confronts us with: 



36 



I. THE PROBLEM OF ENVIRON- 
MENT 

The sower, the seed, the sowing, the 
sunshine, and the rain are assumed as 
impartially the same throughout, but 
the diversity in result is startling. 
Three of the six segments of the sow- 
ing bring no final fruitage, and only 
one comes to its best. How to account 
for this? All other possibilities having 
been exhausted, there remains but a 
single clue to the puzzle — the diversity 
of environment. The story is so told 
as to emphasize this diversity and sug- 
gest its mastery. The devouring of the 
seed that falls on the wayside is ob- 
viously due to the fact that it has no 
37 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

surrounding soil to protect it or en- 
courage germination. That which falls 
upon "rocky places" soon "withers 
away" because it has no fit "deepness 
of earth." That which falls "upon the 
thorns" is "choked" by its preoccupying 
and stronger rivals, and so fails in the 
struggle for life. The bringing forth 
of "some a hundred-fold, some sixty, 
some thirty" is not distinctly accounted 
for. But analogic instinct at once sug- 
gests that, as before, diminishing fruit- 
fulness is due to diminishing friendli- 
ness of environing conditions. The 

question raised is thus one and inevi- *e 

I 
table throughout. It would be super- 
fluous to emphasize the pre-eminence 
given in modern research to the class 
of facts thus outlined, and to the ex- 
planation it suggests. Environment 
38 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

has been found so potent that it has 
been reckoned well-nigh omnipotent. 
Its power to limit and to modify is now 
seen to be so real and so tremendous 
that it has been credited with power also 
to create. Being so clearly the cause of 
much, it has been claimed to be the ulti- 
mate — or, at least, the ultimate ascer- 
tainable — cause of all. But the prob- 
lem is not so easily disposed of. The 
explanation arouses as many questions 
as it answers. It needs to be explained 
itself. That many other factors require 
to be taken into account the narrative 
clearly implies. 

Notice (1) the making of the en- 
vironment. The present environment 
is a result and not a primal cause. The 
particular instances here selected make 
this fact conspicuous. Behind the hard- 
39 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

ness of the wayside are the footsteps of 
man and beasts; and behind these the 
endless maze of human interests and 
impulses that have led to its traversing. 
Behind the shallow plaster of soil upon 
the rock lie the convulsions that tore 
rock fragments from their parent bed, 
and the various later agencies that 
crushed and pulverized them into fertile 
form. Behind the aggressive thorns 
stretches out a long and intricate his- 
tory of advance, and eccentric degener- 
ation, for thorns are but aborted leaves. 
Even the good, better, and best soil of 
the parable is not primeval. If we may 
trust the patiently reached conclusion 
of Mr. Darwin, they owe their relative 
fecundity to no "resident forces." All 
our vegetable mold, he assures us, has 
been ground into fertility by the earth- 
40 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

worm. Although, with self-effacing 
modesty, he keeps himself usually 
buried out of sight, he is, in truth, the 
head gardener of the universe. Be- 
sides this, later investigations uncover 
the ministry of countless micro-organ- 
isms that mediate perpetually between 
the plant and the soil, helping the 
one to assimilate the needful ele- 
ments locked up in the other. In these 
shrewdly selected instances, therefore, 
there is brought to our notice the end- 
less reach of interacting agencies, whose 
efficiency we can not ignore, but whose 
nature and work we can not gauge. All 
of these antecede and underlie environ- 
mental mastery. It is still true that 
"there are more things in heaven and 
earth . . . than are dreamt of in 
your philosophy." 

41 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

(2) The illusion of continuity. 
There is a notably complete line of ad- 
vance from the stagnancy of the way- 
side seed, through clearly marked up- 
ward steps, to the acme of fruitfulness 
in the hundred-fold crop. Does not 
such serial continuity imply also like 
causal continuity? If "in yesterday 
already walks to-morrow," must we not 
find the successively higher to be always 
a new "mode" of the next low r er? Was 
there any large or more real gap be- 
tween the almost-reached fruitage of 
the seed in thorny soil, and that which 
brought a thirty-fold return, than be- 
tween the latter and the sixty- fold crop 
next above it? May we not say that 
the actuality of the latter is a materiali- 
zation of the "potency" of the former, 
to borrow a phrase familiar among 
42 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

physicists? The facts out of which the 
modern notion of universal continuity 
of development has been conjured are 
here given a plausible statement, but 
the notion itself finds no recognition. 
There are degrees of goodness and of 
badness respectively, but no genetic re- 
lation between them. There is an ab- 
rupt division of the series into two 
groups — and between crop and no crop 
there is absolute antithesis. Failure, 
complete or partial, is not the birth 
throe of success. Evil is not "good in 
the making." The devil, who is "the 
father of lies," is not, therefore, the 
grandfather of truth. 

(3) Specious uniformity. The pre- 
cision of parabolic language, even in 
allusion to minor details, is observable 
in the explanation given of what befell 
43 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

the seed falling upon rocky ground. It 
"sprang up quickly because it had no 
deepness of earth." The fact of such 
rapid springing up was obvious to any 
observer, but its correct explanation 
was then not so. We now know that 
the rocky substratum, catching and re- 
flecting the sun rays, cradled the young 
growth in peculiar warmth, and so has- 
tened its advance. The further remark 
that it was when the "sun was risen' 
that the feebly rooted plants "withered 
away" is equally accurate and full of 
suggestiveness. The "rising" so re- 
ferred to must needs be its seasonal 
climb toward the summer solstice, for 
the rooting could not occur in a single 
day. When the sun rides high in sum- 
mer its thermal ray overmatches the lu- 
minous, as that had already displaced 
44 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

the actinic ray of spring, James, in his 
Epistle refers to this as bringing "burn- 
ing heat." By this marvelous change 
in mode of energy displayed, the sun 
adjusts itself continuously to the ad- 
vancing needs of plant life; but the 
change from the mild actinic ray, which 
nurtures all life in its incipient stages, 
to the fiercer thermal ray, which also 
brings healthful ripening to the plant 
in good soil, ministers death to the ten- 
ant of the shallow, rock-bottomed tract. 
This subtle change in the apparently 
uniform emission of solar force may 
well remind us of the illogical nature 
of the processes by which we may bring 
ourselves to speak of the "uniformity 
of nature," and build ponderous and 
fallacious theories thereon. 

(4) Seeming self -sufficiency of na- 
45 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

ture. Lucretius persuaded himself, a 
long time ago, that "nature can do all 
things, without the help of the gods." 
* 'Natural selection" has been sometimes 
theoretically endowed with like semi- 
divine independence of efficiency. But 
in this parable we are reminded that 
the soil which fosters the seed does not 
create it, and that the seed, being cre- 
ated, can normally reach the soil only 
by being sown. Observe that, instead 
of using the familiar and direct desig- 
nation of the seed (siton or sperma), 
our Lord, in His explanation of the 
parable, resorts to a periphrastic form 
of expression — "that which is sown." 
This might be dismissed as acciden- 
tal, but for the uniform abstention 
throughout the parable, from the ordi- 
nary term, and the unusual character 
46 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

of the roundabout phrase substituted. 
This is the more suggestive because of 
the fact that the cereals are in a pecul- 
iar sense "that which is sown." Grass 
grows by the root, and is self -protecting 
and self -propagating. But the cereal 
is uniquely dependent on the ministry 
of man. The geologic record shows it 
to have been twin-born with him, and 
that it came into existence full- formed, 
without traceable antecedents. It has 
never been found wild, as Decandolle 
assures us, and when left to itself it 
does not degenerate as other plants do, 
but disappears. It is also peculiarly 
perishable when gathered. MacMillan 
says, "It is not probable that there was 
ever a year and a half's supply of bread 
at one time in the world," and "The 
human race comes every year within a 
47 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

month of starvation." Cereal life is 
also singularly helpless and unhelped 
except by man. It is not self- fertiliz- 
ing. It is not aided at this point by 
birds or insects, as many other organ- 
isms are. Its delicate pollen must be 
scattered indiscriminately by the wind, 
and is always in danger of being de- 
stroyed by violent blasts or drenching 
rains. It is the victim of myriads of 
insects, as well as of rust and mildew. 
It is plain, then, that the cereal is 
neither a product nor a favorite of 
"natural selection." It never origi- 
nates, and can not survive, apart from 
man. His prescient care must prepare 
the soil and scatter it, and his hand must 
gather and preserve it for future sow- 
ing, or it would perish outright. It il- 
lustrates in unimpeachable fashion the 
48 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

incapacity of nature alone mechanically 
to meet all the needs of vital organisms. 
(5) The mystery of waste. Of the 
six tracts here described as sown only 
one made full return. Of the remain- 
der two were partially and three wholly 
unresponsive. Was the bulk of the 
seed therefore wasted? Here we come 
upon a perennial stumbling-block of 
cosmic theorists. Nature seems to de- 
stroy as ruthlessly as it creates lavishly. 
Yet the word "waste" is, in fact, a mal- 
leable and delusive one. The highway 
was infertile, yet it was indispensable. 
The rock was good to build upon, al- 
though unfit to sow upon. Even the 
thorns might be wrought into a service- 
able hedge. The objectionable and ob- 
structive, from one point of view, may 
be usable and even necessary from an- 
4 49 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

other. No one but the general, who has 
the whole field of battle in view, can 
decide on the wisdom of a single com- 
pany movement. The "sower" who 
here "went forth to sow" furnishes 
light thereby on the problem. The 
wheat he holds in his hand is essential 
to his life. If it be wholly lost, no wit 
of man can replace it by manipulation 
of the grasses; no chemist can find a 
substitute for it as a vehicle of life. 
Of it he may justly say, "Teneo et 
teneor," for he holds it in life by sow- 
ing, and it, in turn, holds him in life 
by the harvest it returns. But being a 
creature of appetite, and knowing that 
it is good for food, why does he not eat 
it as the horse would? Being an ob- 
serving creature, and seeing that the 
seed in the furrow will dissolve and dis- 
50 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

appear, why does he commit it to such 
a fate? Or if, being also "a creature 
of large discourse, looking before and 
after," he perceives that seeming disso- 
lution is not real, but the way to a new 
and increased life, he must also see that 
there are formidable difficulties in the 
way. Beyond his hand, it is beyond 
his reach. It must be left to the mercy 
of mechanical and incalculable forces, 
with grave uncertainty as to result. 
Why, then, should he exchange the se- 
cure for the problematic? Or, again, 
he knows that the seed must have fit 
soil, for he "goes forth" to find it. He 
knows that in sowing some must be 
scattered on the wayside, some on rocky 
ground, and some among thorns. 
Why, then, does he not drop it pa- 
tiently, seed by seed, in fruitful fur- 
51 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

rows, rather than entail foreseen and 
reckless waste by sowing broadcast? 
The future crop may be uncertain if the 
seed be trusted to wind and weather, 
but it is impossible else. The waste of 
time in planting, seed by seed, would 
far outweigh the waste of seed in scat- 
tering. And, from the bird's point of 
view, the wayside seed would not be 
wasted. "There is that scatter eth and 
yet increaseth." The "sower" still de- 
liberately goes forth to sow, and the 
judgment of the ages is that he com- 
mits no waste. 



52 



The question of environment proposed 
in the parable of the sower is broadly 
cosmic. In the parable of the tares, 
which follows, a narrower field of in- 
quiry is chosen. 



II. THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC 
ORIGINS 

Our attention is now diverted from 
the behavior of the soil to that of the 
seed. It is no longer the hindrance of 
normal growth that occasions surprise, 
but the intrusion of the apparently ab- 
normal. Admitting that diversity of 
soil may occasion increase or diminu- 
tion of fruitage even where the soil is 
all good, how are we to account for en- 
tire change of fruitage where soil and 
seed are both alike good? "Didst 
thou not sow good seed in thy field? 
Whence then hath it tares?" There is 
surmise as well as surprise in the ques- 
tion. One of two possible explanations 
55 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

seems always to have promptly oc- 
curred to men. They are: 

1. Spontaneous Generation. The 
notion that nature, which "can do all 
things, without the help of the gods/ 5 
can make the forces it has generated 
blaze of themselves into life at last, has 
seemed plausible enough from the time 
when men began to guess at the riddle 
of the universe. If motion becomes 
heat, why may not heat become life? 
Sanguine experimenters are still dream- 
ing of brewing life out of a gallipot. 
They are still falling in love with work 
of their hands as Pygmalion did, and 
trying to extort the gift of breath for 
it. But success grows less and less 
likely. The man who thinks he has 
reached the desired goal only reveals his 
own carelessness or incompetency as an 
56 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

observer; if we may trust one who was 
himself so competent an observer as 
Professor Huxley. It is a finally ac- 
cepted axiom that "there is no egg ex- 
cept from an egg." This interpreta- 
tion of the mystery failing, there re- 
mains the alternative and equally self- 
commending one, of 

2. Transmutation of Species. Grant- 
ing that the relatively simple and in- 
flexible wheels of nature may not grind 
out a thing so complex and flexible 
as life, may not the larger endow- 
ment of life itself account for the new 
phenomenon? The traditional theory 
that wheat may capriciously turn into 
"chess" or "cheat" still lingers among 
sense-taught rustics. The Darwinian 
canon, that morphologic likeness infal- 
libly reveals genealogic relationship of 
57 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

affinity or descent, grows out of a simi- 
lar conception. For the fact that na- 
ture often indulges in "sports," true to 
type in general but variant in detail, 
manifestly made it possible to believe 
that the novel yet nearly resembling 
"cheat" might have sprung from the 
familiar wheat. But to accept mere re- 
semblance of form as universally the 
index of alliance, through "descent 
with modification," leads to gross ab- 
surdity. We must then believe that the 
rose leaf is the progenitor of the rose- 
leaf bug, which copies it slavishly, even 
to discoloration and spots of decay. 
We must even suspect some genetic af- 
finity between these two and the curi- 
ously patterned frost leaf on the pane. 
It is at least worth observing that, as 
before noted, no form of vegetable life 
58 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

better fitted to refute the notion in 
question could have been chosen than 
the cereal ; for it has, in a unique sense, 
resisted the attempt to discover ances- 
tral relations for it or to find any 
tendency to variation or reversion to a 
cruder form. The enigma, therefore, 
is not to be thus solved. Meantime the 
mimicry of the wheat by the tares, em- 
phasized in the parable, demands a 
passing notice. It brings into view the 
much-debated theory of 

3. Protective Resemblance. It has 
been argued plausibly that certain in- 
ferior forms of life have survived be- 
cause they have acquired or retained 
marked imitative peculiarities. These 
resemblances w r ere thus somehow orig- 
inated, it was thought, out of the ne- 
cessities of the weak and were defensive 
59 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

in character. But the tares in the pres- 
ent case, although "protected" from 
uprooting by their resemblance to the 
wheat, were themselves the aggressors 
upon their better, though weaker, rival. 
And this exposes the fallacy of the the- 
ory in question; for nature, in fact, 
equips her combatants for their life 
struggle with unimpeachable impar- 
tiality. The tawny striped hide of the 
tiger conceals him, in the jungle, from 
the humble creature he seeks to pounce 
upon as completely as any of its pe- 
culiarities protects it from him. It is 
a curious inversion of logic, in any case, 
for those who attribute the production 
of every idiosyncrasy to the mechanical 
operation of unintelligent causes to 
seize upon a single one as in itself be- 
traying intelligent originating purpose. 
60 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

That the tares bear an uncanny likeness 
to the wheat does not prove that they 
are born of the wheat they help to de- 
stroy, nor that the likeness was intended 
to preserve them while doing their un- 
friendly work. We must look beyond 
any of the causes assigned for the ex- 
planation of the new phenomenon. 
The true and only cause is found in the 
discovery of 

4. An Unseen World of Micro- 
organisms. The microscope has now 
uncovered a hitherto unsuspected realm 
of life. Earth, water, and air are 
found to swarm with millions of infini- 
tesimal spores, largely inimical to life 
in its higher ranges. These look vigi- 
lantly for a lodgment, and, having 
found it, multiply with amazing speed. 
From this hidden realm come the in- 
61 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

traders whose origin once seemed so ob- 
scure. They are not the aberrant out- 
growth of familiar things, nor are they 
seedless in origin. They bear seed 
"after their kind/' and are born of seed, 
as rigorously as any plant or tree. And 
this nineteenth century account of the 
matter is substantially identical with 
that given in this parable. It is not 
the soil nor the wheat that has produced 
the tares; "an enemy hath done this." 
It was secret work, for it was done 
"while men slept." It was actual and 
alien seed, for it was "sowed." The 
"kingdom of darkness" constantly re- 
ferred to in Scripture has its counter- 
part at least in that occult region from 
whence come these insidious foes. It 
is the hiding place and arsenal of the 

"enemy." 

62 



III. THE PROBLEM OF A VITAL 
FORCE 

The parable of the mustard seed nar- 
rows and deepens the field of vision. It 
passes from soils, and seeds, and the ab- 
normal processes of hindrance or intru- 
sion from without, to the behavior of a 
single seed working normally from 
within. It fastens attention on the in- 
herent mystery of germination and 
growth. The companion parable, given 
by Mark, puts it pithily. It notes the 
wonder of him who has "cast seed upon 
the earth," that it should "spring up 
and grow, he knoweth not how." The 
theorist is apt to imagine the restate- 
63 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

ment of the problem as equivalent to 
its solution. "I never was born, but 
just growed," said Topsy. Growth is 
so familiar a phenomenon that we are 
content to call it "natural" and assume 
that it is therefore simple. The high 
evolutionist echoes Topsy 's simple ex- 
planation of the existing order of 
things, but substitutes a new name: 
"The universe never w r as created but 
just evolved" (that is "growed," as he 
takes pains to explain) . But the word 
"grow" (to say nothing of "evolve") 
is highly cabalistic. It masks much 
more than it reveals. It notes visible 
advance, through shoot and trunk, to 
full-formed tree, but it tells nothing of 
the hidden agency that masters com- 
plex processes, and guides them wit- 
tingly to a definite result. The word 
64 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

"grow," moreover, is well fitted to be- 
tray us through its elasticity of appli- 
cation. It readily takes on a meta- 
phorical sense, which then is assumed 
to be literal. Witness the familiar 
trope, "the more the marble wastes the 
more the statue grows." It is precisely 
this figurative use of the word which, 
illusively treated as literal, gives color 
to the Darwinian explanation of the 
"origin of species." The evolutionary 
"growth" there appealed to is mechan- 
ical erosion; it is not "natural" but ar- 
tificial. The phenomena of growth 
here hinted at remind us of its still un- 
solved mysteries involved. It must be 
said of them, now as then, "he knoweth 
not how." 

1. Automatism. Until "sowed" the 
seed is as helpless a victim of mechan- 
5 65 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

ical force as the clod. But, unlike the 
clod, it hides in itself an intangible 
somewhat which the experimentalist 
can not discover, and for which he has 
no better name than the obviously un- 
scientific one, a "potency." By help of 
this it "springs up," mastering hence- 
forth the force of gravity that has been 
thus far its master. Thoreau thought 
he saw a master key of the enigmas of 
growth in the image of an inverted tree 
carved out by the rainfall on the side 
of a railroad embankment. But the 
key does not reach the deepest wards of 
the lock. The water is drawn irresist- 
ibly down along a channel mechanic- 
ally shaped by visibly controlling stone 
or nodule; but the tree springs up and 
there are no discoverable molds into 
which it runs. 

66 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

2. Increase by Assimilation. The 
"smallest of all seeds" becomes "greater 
than the herbs." We are told that some 
seeds not a hundredth part of the size 
of a pin's head grow in a single night 
to the size of a great gourd. They 
multiply cells at the rate of nearly a 
hundred million in a minute. They 
grow as much in a night as our chil- 
dren do in ten years. And this growth 
in bulk is not the result of aggregation 
only, as in case of the mineral. That 
accumulates mechanically, under math- 
ematic regimen, and remains homoge- 
neous throughout. But the seed lays 
hold of the soil into which it has been 
cast only to spring from it. It bor- 
rows material from it only to trans- 
mute and incorporate it into itself. It 
gathers, digests, differentiates, and or- 
67 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

ganizes it into a symmetrical whole. It 
shapes and reshapes its own organs at 
need. In all this it parts widely from 
the non-living realm. 

3. Creative Activity. "It becom- 
eth a tree." The old quarrel between 
the evolutionist and the epigenesist 
turned on the question whether the tree 
was simply an enlarged phase of its 
own miniature self, existing in the seed, 
or whether it had come to be as a new 
thing. The latter doctrine has pre- 
vailed, although by a curious freak of 
inversion it has taken on its old rival's 
name. It is now commonly agreed that 
the process by which the great branch- 
ing tree is elaborated from the tiny 
round seed is one involving a strictly 
creative element. The germinal proto- 
plasm is absolutely structureless to the 
68 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

sharpest microscopic vision. More than 
that, it literally dies; that is to say, it 
disintegrates and disappears. The 
causative source of the unfolding tree 
is that mysterious somewhat within the 
seed beyond the longest reach of scalpel 
or microscope, which has been already 
alluded to as a "potency." So that the 
"things that are seen were not made of 
the things that do appear." The "po- 
tency" thus revealed is not a resultant 
of slowly advancing processes from 
below. "The change is instantaneous," 
says Beale; "the life flashes, as it were, 
into the particles, and they live." And 
it is itself as new and as diverse in ac- 
tion as are the things it brings into be- 
ing. Chemical compounds are homoge- 
neous and symmetric. All crystalliza- 
tion is in straight lines. But "in germs 
69 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

the want of symmetry is the first hint 
of formative purpose." "Vital move- 
ments differ from all others in being 
unsymmetrieal and in all directions and 
forms; without rhythm." Asserting 
its freedom from the mechanical, at 
first, in this spasmodic and erratic way, 
life settles anon into a new form of 
symmetry, revealing itself in the curved 
grace and beauty of leaf, and flower, 
and fruit. It is an unmistakably new 
agency that, through counterpoised 
heredity and variation, brings into be- 
ing things perennially new. 

4. Selective Efficiency. The brain- 
less, wingless seed, cast upon the way- 
side, can neither see nor escape the 
more richly endowed bird. But, quick- 
ened, it has wit enough to build a struc- 
ture so elaborate and attractive that 
TO 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

"the birds of heaven come and lodge 
in the branches thereof." By what 
strange power is it helped to solve prob- 
lems that the birds can not? For there 
are here prodigies of achievement in the 
solution of problems chemical, mechan- 
ical, architectural, and artistic. And 
they are solved without help of crucible, 
pattern, or tool of any kind. The 
earthworm, which seems but a random 
scratch at the bottom of nature's page, 
is able, as Mr. Darwin satisfied himself 
by repeated experiments, to solve the 
problem of least resistance as accu- 
rately as the most acute mathematician. 
For he seizes the stone or paper left 
near his hiding place at exactly the 
right point to drag it most easily over 
his door. The hermit of Walden Pond 
was curious to learn how much pump- 
71 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

kin there might be in his back yard. 
He did not turn to the Academy of 
Sciences for information, knowing it 
would be a vain quest, but he put a 
diplomaless pumpkin seed into the soil 
and set it upon the task of answering. 
It ferreted out forty pounds of pump- 
kin and hung its answer on the garden 
fence. A perishing vine has been 
known, impelled by that "scent of wa- 
ter" of which Job speaks, to climb an 
intervening wall that it may thrust its 
thirsty roots into a well on the farther 
side. The mystery of lif e thus outlined 
suggestively in the first century re- 
mains as attractive and as impenetrable 
in the twentieth. The challenge "Have 
ye understood all these things?" re- 
mains still unmet. We have resolved 
life into a "potency," but have thereby 
72 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

confessed its secret to be beyond the 
reach of microscope or crucible. It lin- 
gers, inaccessible, "behind the veil." 

The antithesis between the good and 
bad soils finds expression in a single 
parable, that of the sower. The same 
is true as to the good and bad seed. 
But it requires two parables, that of the 
mustard seed and that of the leaven, to 
bring out the contrast between growth 
and counter-growth. The latter par- 
able, accordingly, propounds a serious 
problem. 



73 



IV. THE PROBLEM OF DE- 
STRUCTIVE AGENCIES 

The most intricate and baffling of 
the phenomena that confront the biolo- 
gist are those connected with fermenta- 
tion. "We have, as yet, no certain idea 
of the action of organic ferments." So 
wrote Schutzenberg in 1876. Johnson, 
in his "Chemistry of Common Life," 
pronounced it "physiologically and 
chemically inexplicable." Subsequent 
research has left the riddle only incom- 
pletely solved. The parable of the 
leaven fixes our inquiring gaze upon 
this uniquely perplexing process, seiz- 
ing with wonderful accuracy upon its 
most eccentric features. 
74 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

1. Shrinking from Light. The leaven 
is not said to have been "sown" as 
were the seed in the preceding para- 
bles. It was "hid" in the receiving me- 
dium. For the yeast plant belongs to 
that singular section of the plant world, 
the fungoid, which reverses the ordi- 
nary and essential habit of the vegeta- 
ble kingdom; it "loves darkness rather 
than light." It still further divorces 
itself from its kindred, and allies itself 
with the animal kingdom. For, like the 
animal, and unlike any other vegetable, 
it absorbs oxygen and gives off carbon 
dioxide. It thus takes on often a flesh- 
like texture and odor, even becoming 
fetid and attracting carrion flies. Its 
behavior at this point has seemed so 
paradoxical to some biologists that they 

have assigned it a separate place, as in- 
75 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

termediate between plants and animals, 
These peculiarities, together with its in- 
tolerance of light, explain the necessity 
of its being "hid" rather than sown. 

2. Parasitism. All plants which 
shun the light, thereby rob themselves 
of power to decompose the inorganic 
elements of the soil and assimilate the 
product. They thus become necessarily 
parasitic ; they must feed on that which 
lives or has lived. The leaven must 
needs have been hid in meal, therefore, 
for that had been vitalized. In the soil 
it would quickly perish. Finding a 
congenial place, it would begin at once 
to disintegrate the highly complex tis- 
sues of the meal, degrading them to 
their original inorganic state. It would 
thus wantonly and quickly unmake 

what the living plant had so deftly and 
76 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

patiently made. The discovery of the 
wide prevalence of such apparently 
maleficent agencies in the organization 
of the universe has been an occasion of 
endless surprise and bewilderment. It 
is the more astonishing because of the 
marked indulgence given them. There 
are said to be over three thousand spe- 
cies of vegetable parasites alone. They 
multiply in numbers and develop in size 
with a speed that is startling. MacMil- 
lan tells of fungi that throw off thirty 
thousand cells a minute and grow three 
inches in twenty-five minutes. Why 
should these malign destroyers be given 
so great advantage in the struggle for 
life over the nobler forms on which they 
prey? We here reach the edge of the 
broader and age-long question which 
lurks behind all such inquiries: how to 
77 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

explain the permitted origin of phys- 
ical evil in any form. 

3. Tome Stimulus. The most mys- 
terious element of the process in ques- 
tion remains still to be remarked upon. 
The leaven having been hid in the meal, 
the "whole was leavened." No report 
is made as to what befell the leaven it- 
self. The meal was not incorporated 
into its lif e, but leavened, that is, modi- 
fied by its diffused influence. But 
how? Here is the crux of the problem. 
Fermentation was formerly attributed 
to independent chemical agency. On 
the discovery of the yeast plant it was 
at once credited to its vital working; 
but later investigation shows the newly 
found organism to be the occasion 
only, not the direct originator, of the 

process. Fermentation is a process of 

78 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

dissolution which, left to itself, ends in 
putrefaction and destruction. The 
growing leaven can not of itself di- 
rectly accomplish this, but it has the 
extraordinary power to subsidize inno- 
cent chemic forces to its nefarious pur- 
pose. The dough, stirred by the chemic 
gases thus generated, rises and grows 
as if alive. But it is a counterfeit of 
life only. It is incipient death. It 
thus appears that the three kingdoms 
are insidiously laid under tribute by the 
leaven to inaugurate a process which, 
permitted to go on to completion, 
would infect the wholesome meal into 
which it is admitted and make it poison- 
ous. For, being a plant, it has taken 
on animal features and functions from 
above, and laid hold of and compelled 

the help of chemic forces from below, 
79 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

to accomplish its unfriendly work. 
The mystery grows deep. But a hint 
of relief is given in the suggested 

4. Subordination of Evil to Good. 
The leaven was not hid in the meal 
unintelligently. nor without purpose. 
The "woman" who hid it was certain to 
keep her eye on it, and at the right time 
thrust the loaf into the oven. The 
leaven was suffered to proceed only so far 
as could be healthfully appropriated. 
Joseph's brethren "meant it for evil" 
when they sent him forward through 
the pit to slavery, but God ''meant it 
for good/ 5 and brought good through 
it. The leaven still may "mean it for 
evil" when it breeds incipient toxin in 
the meal, but the shrewd house-mother 
also still "means it for good," and con- 
tinues wisely to hide it in the meal. 
80 



V. THE PROBLEM OF PARA- 
BOLIC PURPOSE 

All seven parables reveal a carefully 
marked line of demarcation and con- 
trast. They set the evil over against 
the good, the false over against the 
true. They reiterate, also/ an earnest 
warning against deception through 
failure to discriminate the really true 
from that which is only illusively so. 
As in the case of the mustard and the 
leaven, so in that of the hid treasure 
and the pearl, two parables are set over 
against each other to bring out the an- 
tithesis. These two parables are not- 
ably alike in some particulars. Some 
6 81 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

interpreters have even inclined to treat 
them as substantially identical in pur- 
port because of this. In each a man be- 
comes aware of a treasure, in each he 
becomes its owner, and in each it costs 
his all to secure it. Were this all that 
is meant, it is inconceivable that two 
parables should have been given where 
one would have sufficed. The real sig- 
nificance of the teaching must he in the 
differences noted. These seem to cen- 
ter in the mental attitude of the two 
men. The finding was in the one case 
an accident and surprise; in the other 
it was the outcome of intelligent and 
patient search, ending only with the 
finding of the particular ' 'pearl .of 
great price." In the one case the treas- 
ure was hid again, its nature even not 
being disclosed; in the other it was 
82 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

plainly utilized. In the one case the 
field, with its still hidden prize, was 
bought ; in the other it was not the cas- 
ket containing the pearl, nor the gulf 
from which it had come, and where 
others might lie hid, but the pearl it- 
self that was secured. This contrast 
touches the marrow of purpose in par- 
abolic teaching. 

1. Indolent Content with Super- 
ficial Truths. The parable has been 
defined as the "husk which keeps the 
kernel from the indifferent and for 
the earnest." In this sense it was said 
to have been given to the careless mul- 
titude, "that seeing they might not see, 
and hearing they might not under- 
stand." And this concealing function 
is as true of the "all parables" nature 
gives her children as of those given by 
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SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

Christ. Balearic mothers used to place 
their younglings' breakfeast on an 
overhanging limb that they might learn 
to bring it down with a bow. The earth 
brings forth fruit of itself, and holds 
it out to the hungry, that they may 
learn to improve it. It invitingly be- 
trays the hiding place of coal and the 
precious metals that they may be dug 
for and wrought. It sets us simple les- 
sons in swimming and flight in the 
equipment of fishes and birds that we 
may build ships and aeroplanes. It 
furnishes a primer of artistic form and 
color in the flowers that Phidias and 
Raphael may be taught thereby. But 
he who dismisses flower, bird, coal, and 
wheat as exhausted of all possible, if 
not all real, meaning for us by chemical, 
and histological, and mechanical analy- 
84 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

sis, has "stuck in the bark." It is not 
true that nothing is true except what 
we can "experimentally verify." He 
who thinks so contents himself with 
half-truths instead of the truth. He 
willingly carnalizes the vision and 
buries the proffered treasure in the 
earth. In his case, surely, if "knowl- 
edge comes," it is true that "wisdom 
lingers." 

2. Earnest Quest for Final Truth. 
Before the ever-sharpening eye of 
the explorer, reaching higher into the 
heavens, piercing deeper into the heart 
of the material world beside us, dif- 
ferences of material constitution tend 
to disappear, forces resolve themselves 
into modes of a single force, laws 
unify themselves as law. This con- 
vergence in the world of sense awakens 
85 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

reasonable expectation of like conver- 
gence in the equally real, although far 
more occult, world, of sensation and 
mentality. Beyond the solid and easily 
accessible earth lies the restless un- 
fathomable sea. Out of its mysterious 
depths comes the pearl. It is unique 
among gems. No other requires half 
the courageous venture or entails half 
the peril in obtaining. The pearl diver, 
armed with a knife to contend against 
sharks, and with ears and nostrils arti- 
ficially protected against the enormous 
pressure below, plunges into the deadly 
depths. Life is often the cost of the 
venture. The pearl alone, unlike the 
diamond or any other gem, will endure 
no touch of human hand. Like the 
altar of old, the "workman must not 
lift up any tool upon it." It alone, 
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PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

also, is the product of vital processes. 
It is the response of a wounded life 
covering with loving beauty the un- 
friendly grain that has wounded it. 
The process is mysterious but the 
fact unquestioned. Complete in itself, 
the product of suffering and bought 
through suffering, at the peril of 
life, it seems to betray the deepest se- 
cret of the universe. One can but re- 
member that while the foundations of 
the heavenly city are varied, its every 
gate is of a single pearl. And we also 
are reminded that Jesus said, "I am the 
door." The Jews were proud of their 
exclusive title to the Scriptures. They 
"thought" that "in them they had eter- 
nal life." But they were content with 
the husk; they did not faithfully 
"search" for the life therein. He only 
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SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

who goes below the surface phenomena 
of the terrestrial can find in the depths 
of the spiritual "the truth" — the "pearl 
of great price." 



88 



The last three parables are addressed 
to the disciples alone. It may be as- 
sumed that they require keener vision, 
to reach their greater depth of signifi- 
cance, than do the others. They lay 
less exclusive emphasis on the inde- 
pendent ongoing of the lower world, 
passing on to consider the motives and 
conduct of men as influenced by or in- 
fluencing nature. Human nature is a 
part of nature at large, and as such it 
is subject to generic laws, but the edi- 
fice of creation enlarges as it rises. Its 
higher stories successively overhang the 
lower. Physiology is harder to under- 
stand than physics, and psychology 
harder than either, and the ascending 
hierarchy of laws grows steadily more 
voluminous and subtly intricate. These 
parables may, therefore, be dismissed 
with briefer and less confident com- 
ment, for the "well is deep." 



VI. THE CONCLUDING DIS- 
CLOSURE 

The Orientals call the sea the "night 
of the depths." The earth itself 
sprang out of it. All life is still born 
of water. It is the home of unsolved 
mysteries. The things that fall into it 
"suffer a sea change into something 
rich and strange." Strange forms of 
life play in its waters, and the waters 
themselves thrill with strange forces. 
It fitly sums up the dominant features 
of the present unexplained order, 

1. The Realm of Conspicuous Free- 
dom. It is the "uncharted sea." It 
tolerates no fences nor proprietary 
91 



SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

lines. It bears up impartially and parts 
easily to the touch of all its varied ten- 
ants. It gives ungrudging room to the 
grasping octopus and the savage shark, 
as well as to the innocent small fry and 
the beneficent food fishes. Its fluent 
tides are released from the unchanging 
rigidity of the earth. In this primary 
impression, of unobstructed play of in- 
dependent forms and forces, it fairly 
symbolizes the world at large. The fly- 
ing clouds, the tangled copse, the wan- 
dering winds, the variegated landscape, 
the flitting bird, the springing forest 
tenantry, as well as the dancing wave, 
testify of movement of all at "their 
own sweet will." Of this free agency 
man is supremely conscious. It makes 
his conduct so capricious and unpredict- 
able that a technically accurate science 
92 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

of history has been pronounced im- 
practicable. Of all the mysteries of 
this present world none is more pro- 
found than the sudden explosion of 
those wanton extravagances of popu- 
lar passion that led Bishop Butler to 
question whether communities might 
not, like individuals, become instantly 
insane. 

2. The Realm of Hidden Law. Be- 
hind the veil in the old tabernacle, in 
the depths of the sacred ark, reposed 
the tables of the law. In nature, in 
like manner, deeper research brings us 
always in sight of hidden law. The 
sweep-net of the parable curbs no pres- 
ent freedom ; it sends forward no warn- 
ing shadow; it does not obtrude nor in 
any way plainly report its presence. 
But it moves on, "unhasting, unrest- 
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SOME PARABLES OF NATURE 

ing," impartial, irresistible, inevitable. 
When its work is done the freedom and 
concealment of the sea have given place 
to utter helplessness of exposure in the 
open day upon the naked shore. So 
the ashes of Vesuvius suddenly ar- 
rested, transfixed, and permanently ex- 
posed to the gaze of succeeding ages 
the hidden immoralities of Pompeii. 
So the ripened harvest of the world has 
been more than once reaped by some 
convulsion of nature, as the harvest 
of the sea is here represented to be. 
Unif ormitarianism is no longer tenable 
as fully explanatory of the history of 
the universe. The culmination of the 
ripening year, the culmination of every 
life history, the culmination of the age- 
long movements of mankind all point 
on to 

94 



PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM 

One far off divine event 

To which the whole creation moves. 

The round of parables thus com- 
pletes itself. Beginning with the 
planted seed, it ends in the final "thrust- 
ing in the sickle, for the harvest of the 
earth is ripe." "Nothing is hid that 
shall not be made manifest" in that day, 
and in its manifestations will be re- 
vealed the "righteous judgment of 
God" embodied in the present provi- 
dential order. 



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